Our initial team of four intending a leisurely trip to Siguniang shan in the Qionglai Range of Eastern Tibet saw

itself suddenly reduced to only two: Steve Waiwah Yip ('Geordie') and myself. We decided to play on some granite faces on Chanping gou, granite faces that I remembered from a trip in the area the year before. Nevertheless the entire trip turned out jinxed and looked like disasters ready to happen were crouched and lurking around each corner. We missed our flight, our luggage was rejected, we were sent with ice axes to board the plane, we were turned back again and lost the next two flights fighting with the rather challenging-to-deal-with staff of Sichuan airlines; then our local fixer didn't show up as agreed. We ended up overcharged and dumped halfway to base camp by our charming porters and their lovely horses. We had to randomly choose a wall, pay some more to have our gear ferried there then, just as we sat down for a minute, like in a 30es comedy, the weather crapped out right on top of us and, why not, I got sick. Truly it all looked like we had the perfect recipe for the disaster and guess what: we managed to improve on it! We got onto our wall - a splendid blank face with two parallel cracks running for 200m. Too bad they were off-width and for most of it we had only to pieces of gear that would fit (a Camalot 5 cute and cozy and a wobbly, screeching 4.5) which Geordie leapfrogged. On top of this section we had a roof and a system of overhangs and chimneys, seasoned with a several days downpour, a sprinkle of high winds and a pinch, make it a fist full of fog. On the way down after a 24 hours day a belay cozy set into an expando crack blew nearly sending me to the valley floor via the air express. Somehow we managed to get off the wall all limbs attached to the core just to find out that we were again hijacked by our porters who refused, again, half way through, to take us to the nearest village which by implication meant that we were doomed again to miss our flights me even the one back to Romania. Finally, after a shouting championship, we concluded by now a 36 hours day in a van on way to Chengdu airport, just to top it all with a desert of receiving a hefty 300USD fine for not having a climbing permit (which our fixer was supposed to have organised but failed to do so) and realising that the porters lost some of our rather dear bits of gear... The last mix-up that fell onto our heads was that we ended flying, by mistake again, first class. Somehow this made it all look like a happy end! It also turned out that we did the FA of the SW face (4950m) of Siguniang four (6250m), which happened to be the most coveted peak in the range. Our line reached the summit ridge intersecting the Japanese route of '92 but we did not follow it to the summit due to time constrain. We climbed the roughly 400-450m wall bolts free (and in places brain free) and we left behind only some pegs and nuts and slings in the abseil anchors. We named our route 'Suffering First Class' (guess why) and we grade it V A3 5.10. However getting to and back from the route itself got A6 in my book. As far as I am concerned I am entirely to be blamed for this because when our teacher was instructing my classmates about the meaning of monsoon I was playing truant and bouldering on the schools wall; and as she said: you can learn things the easy way or the hard way, I made my choice So, while writing this report am just sitting on my Zion haulbag which I'll be sending this afternoon to Chengdu and guess where are we heading to next Saturday? Yeap! Exactly there, but now am savvy Ive heard that in winter it doesnt rain so I should be sorted. Cosmin Andron